Title: Analyzing the Meaning

Challenge: Greener Pastures

Theme: Spring

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or the theme

There was no up or down, nor left or right. She was just there. No existence. No feeling.

Floating in an amaranthine of darkness. Losing strength, she felt her body go into catatonic. She gave no fight, showed no resistance to the coldness now seeping through her bones. Everything was coming to an end; and as always, she did nothing to prevent it.

Dimly, through her half-lidded eyes, she saw what looked a silver mirror. It was the length and width of her body--but there was no reflection, at least, not hers. What was in the mirror was a closed window, with its curtains on the floor. The window means that she has shut herself out, and is afraid to venture to new things because of past failures, disappointments. The blinds show that she welling to try new things, or make things she bad at good; but a possibility that her shy nature will make her form a shell again.

The images shifted upon herself, bloodied up, clothes ripped, and a wary, tired body. But not defeated. Her eyes feel held a fierce determination, that if her body wasn't numb she would have moved away.

Another shift in the image, but it is neither a person or object. It is a color. A warm green color.

Green. She knows somebody green. And the mirror, as though heard her thought, the green expanded into the figure of a person. She feels irritated, there's a nagging feeling that she should know but can't remember. The nostalgia came, but left without giving her a name or face.

The stiffness that once controlled her body, left. Tentatively, she placed her hand upon the soft surface, and it moved horizontally and extended its length to a place she didn't know of.

As she walked to the path--which changed from silver to gray,-- warmth began to circulate throughout her body. Maybe the place she was headed to was kinder than the reflection she faced?

White. Everything was white: from the tile on the floor, to the ceiling, the curtain that separated her from the other occupant in the room, the wall color, and even the pillow behind her head and the sheet that covered her... was white. Besides the lack of color, there was a pristine smell in the room; everything smelt clean. It was a place she knew too well.

Hinata'seyes widen when she figured out where she was at: the hospital.

...How did she get there?

"Are you all lapdogs to the main Hyuuga branch?" Neji sneered at the Jounin that held him back from delivering another fatal blow to his cousin.

Now she remembered, the chunin exams, her cousin had wanted to kill -- no add to the already critical hit she'd received from him.

"Ah, hello. I'm glad to see that you're awake now." Startled, Hinata turned towards the sound of the voice to see a medic nin smiling at her.

"O-Ohayo," Hinata greeted. "H-How long-g was I-I out-t?"

"Oh, for 10 days or so," the medic walked over to Hinata and took the chart hanging from the edge of her bed and checked it over. " Yup, you gave us quite a scare. You were the second-worse case we had from the Chunin exams, since... I don't know, a year?"

Second-worse? Hinata thought. She was pretty sure that her condition was bad if it took her that amount of time to recover. If she was second, -- not like she wanted to be second worse case in a hospital, anyway -- who'd won first?

"Alright," the medic, whose name Hinata didn't get, or didn't pay attention to, said. "Now that you're awake, lets get you a check up, okay?" She said with a soft smile.

Inwardly, Hinata groaned; this was a process she was too familiar with.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a few more days afterwards before she was allowed to walk around. It had took her some hours to get used to using her legs again, but it seems that the determination she had in the Chunin exams wasn't lost.

Hinatadecided she wanted to go outside, one, for the fresh air; and two, the flowers. And besides, being cooped up in a hospital for days wasn't fun, and she needed exercise. She felt conten in the lush, dark green fields with the burtsof color from the different flora there. So, it seemed unnatural for something white to be in a field of green.

And was it moving...?

Slowly, she made her way to anomaly, to find one of her cousin's teammate, Rock Lee.

"O-Ohay-yo, Lee-san,"

"Oyaho, Hinata-san, I've just finished my third rep of sit ups!" Lee greeted, and gave her a bright smile, but the 'pang' wasn't as bright as she remembered.

"How are you feeling, Hinata-san?" Lee question brought Hinata out from her musing.

"G-Good. I-I should-d be able to l-leave in a f-few days," she watched as Lee nodded, and had noticed what Lee was wearing were hospitalal robes. "A-Ano, L-Lee-san, how did-d you get t-to the h-hospita-al?"

After the question left her lips she regretted asking, seeing how Lee's face showed a melancholy that sharply contrasted to the vibrant person she'd know him to be.

"Y-You don't-t ha-ave to answer."

"No. It's alright, Hinata-san. My match was after yours, and my opponent was Gaara of the Sand. I lost... and I may never be able to be a ninja again."

The Hyuuga really hated how her stomach twitched, and how her heart sanked. There was a awkward silence, that neither one of them know how to dissipate.

Since it was her question that brought this silence, Hinata felt that it was her responsibility to get rid of it.

"D-Don't worry-y, Lee-san. I'm-m s-sure you'll o-overcome t-this." She squeaked and poked her index fingers together in embarrassment.

Lee face brighten up. "Yosh! You're right, Hinata-san. I'll just have to keep on training so when I return I can work even harder!"

Hinata, nodded, a smile on her face. "Green-n s-suits yo-ou, Lee-san."

"Huh?"

"Green m-means renewal and-d h-health."

Green was somehow the only color she could imagine on Lee.

Author notes:

So, what do you think? I hope everyone is in character.